


Innards

by deskclutter



Category: The Sandman
Genre: Gen, Ravens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-22
Updated: 2010-06-22
Packaged: 2017-10-10 05:37:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/96171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deskclutter/pseuds/deskclutter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three introspective pieces about Fiddler's Green, Lucien, and Matthew.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Innards

  
**Title:** Innards  
**Day/Theme:** February 2nd / three seeds  
**Series:** Sandman  
**Character/Pairing:** Fiddler's Green, Lucien, Matthew  
**Rating:** G  
_Heart: n. the innermost or central part of anything _

Fiddler's Green did not begin as a garden. He started as a seeding, a small trickle, the first black beetle to crawl across the Dreaming.

He began as a memory-ghost of green as tendrils of belief unfurled and crept into the matter of the Dreaming, rooting and stabilising itself, then making its way up and around into its own space of Dreamtime. He began as a wafting zephyr of faint song, a softly stealing spider-legged black lines turned to dancing by the wind. Fiddler's Green began as hope.

"This is the Heart of the Dreaming," said Morpheus, and he found it to be good.

  
_Mind: n. remembrance or recollection; memory._

Lucien was once a raven black with glossy pinions and eyes made of bright coal. He does not remember those days.

Lucien remembers the dreams that are, those that were, and, on occasion, those that will be. Lucien remembers times as they change in the Dreaming: the stability of the years before Lord Morpheus took a lover; the decadent ruin the Dreaming did not become in Lord Morpheus' absence. Lucien remembers the library as he first knew it; it is one thing to be imbued with the knowledge of all unwritten books and their exact place within the library and another thing entirely to recall the first scent of new wood and must mixed incongruous into the fragrance that permeated the library when they were all young. It is another thing to watch the library wear the echo of the weather as Lord Morpheus clothes the Dreaming as the mood takes him, be it autumn, storm or Fiddler's Green. It is another thing to _know_ the library as though it were a second skin to shed or wear as the need arises.

Lucien sits to remember this particular mood of the library. It's very different from the time where it was only Lord Morpheus and himself: he may not remember his wings, but the mood of the time, when dreams were new and hope was new and the end was far away, is unforgettable. He remembers when Fiddler's Green was new, and when Merv Pumpkinhead was conceived in the minds of men. He is the sum of the knowledge of the Dreaming, and it has always been a responsibility that was his to adopt. He has little intention of relinquishing it now.

  
_Soul: n. the emotional part of human nature; the seat of the feelings or sentiments._

Matthew's still a chick, he's told. He's not sure why he listened to old ravens who were eating the wrecked bodies of his friends, but it's done now. They're not exactly wrong, because there's still room for Matthew to grow, though maybe not in wingspan or the length of his beak or whatever. He's got room to improve, though it's kind of, you know, _late_, the moment's late like the boss is late. He's got space to fill in the tiny cavity of his chest that doesn't hurt so much if people'd stop prodding it, but he's at the funeral and it's like people have stuck permanent pitchforks in the pain so it's too late and he's just got to deal. Maybe he can do that without trying to take off Merv's head again, and that was a really stupid thought seeing as Merv just _died_ and Matthew can't treat it like nothing even if Merv's okay with dying and resurrecting, so that's enough black humour for now.

The point is, other than the achy cavity, he remembers the boss in all his in_fur_iating…infuriatingness, and while the kid does too, they remember it different. And hell, he's just a kid who won't know how to deal with the family or the dreams and nightmares as they come back, not really, because whatever the boss told the kid he probably didn't think of the really important stuff like family problems and relationships or how to deal with, say, Thor when he's drunk as a skunk and making off-colour hammer jokes.

Besides, Lucien's sticking around. Birds of a feather, right?


End file.
